Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Amorphis - Tales from the Thousand Lakes - Elegy

Relapse have been updating their Relapse Alumni Bandcamp page like crazy (the Relapse Alumni concept is explained here). Up now is all (?) the albums Amorphis released on Relapse. Most are re-issues featuring bonus tracks, Tales from the Thousand Lakes includes their Black Winter Day EP. And a Doors cover.

Thousand Lakes is one of the few perfect intros to a metal album. As soon as I hear it, I'm carried away to Lapland, flying on the eagle from the North East:

One wing ruffled the water
And the other swept the sky
It's tail skimmed the sea

It doesn't get much better than that. But don't just take my word for it, read the reviews from AllMusic and From the Dust Returned, and hear it below.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

You can only stream one track from all the albums on the Relapse Alumni Bandcamp page. I think that is a fairly stupid decision, I'm a firm believer in the hear-like-buy principle, explained better than I ever could by Andrew Dubber:

By far the most reliable way to promote music is to have people hear it. Repeatedly, if possible — and for free. After a while, if you’re lucky, people get to know and love the music. Sooner or later, they’re going to want to own it.

Nobody really wants to buy a piece of music they don’t know — let alone one they haven’t heard. Especially if it’s by someone who lies outside their usual frame of reference.

And a 30-second sample is a waste of your time and bandwidth. It’s worse than useless. That’s not enough to get to like your music. Let them hear it, keep it, live with it. And then bring them back as a fan

But listen to the single track from Elegy below. Better Unborn is a fantastic song. And check out the reviews from AllMusic and From the Dust Returned.